Results-based management (RBM) is a public management strategy that involves decision making based on reliable information regarding the effects of governmental actions on society. It has been adopted in various developed countries as a way of improving efficiency and effectiveness in public policy. In Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries, governments and public managers show increasing interest in this management strategy. Given the relative novelty of RBM in the region, however, there is scant literature on the subject. This book is intended to fill this gap in two ways. First, it seeks to describe some of the basic RBM concepts and adapt them according to regional characteristics. Second, it presents an assessment, based on studies carried out in 25 countries, of the challenges facing LAC countries and their capacity to implement results-based public management.

A detailed and historical account of both theory and practice, this book attempts to make sense of the loose and little understood field of development administration. The book focuses on development administration over forty years and identifies key attributes of public bureaucracy which are associated with bureaucratic performance. The associations between bureaucracy's attributes and performance are employed in explaining development differences between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago over the period 1960-1995. Associations are explored at the macro level through aggregate data and at the micro level through fascinating case studies of the Industrial Development Corporations (IDCs), associated with economic growth, and the Ministry of Education, associated with women's empowerment. The study establishes clear patterns of associations in the empirical cases and explores the implications of these findings for the theory of development administration.

Refer review of this policy book in 'Journal of International Development, vol. 10, 7, 1998. pp.841-855.

A discussion of the impact of government revenues and expenditures on economic activity, with special reference to developing countries. Michael Howard raises theoretical and empirical issues relating to the role of the public sector in economic development.

The 2021 edition includes input indicators on public finance and employment; process indicators include data on institutions, budgeting practices, human resources management, regulatory governance, public procurement, governance of infrastructure, public sector integrity, open government and digital government. Outcome indicators cover core government results (e.g. trust, political efficacy, inequality reduction) and indicators on access, responsiveness, quality and satisfaction for the education, health and justice sectors.